Antique Coke Bottles

One of the most popular soda bottles to collect is Coca Cola, called
"Coke" for short.

Hutchinson Coke

The very first Coke bottles were Hutchinson style bottles - these are
extremely rare and date before 1900.
Straight-sided (S-S) Coke bottles with crown tops date about 1900-1919;
colors were clear, aqua, green, blue, and amber with amber bottles
in good condition typically bringing the highest prices.
"Coca-Cola" embossed in script letters contained Coke and is more
valuable, while the "Coca-Cola" embossed in block letters contained a
flavored drink other than Coke so is less valuable.

There are two styles of Hutchinson Coke:
one with "Coca-Cola" in script and one without.
The Biedenharn hutch is the one without "Coca-Cola" in script.
Also be careful of the script hutch reproduction.
Examples of all 3 hutches can be found on the
Antique Coca-Cola Bottle Hall of Fame page.

Straight-Sided Coke

Of the S-S Cokes, listed below are the basic styles
which depend primarily on where the script Coca-Cola logo is located:

For each style listed above, you can click to see an example.
Note there are also custom styles that do not fall into
one of these categories.

The S-S Cokes originally had labels. To see one with its original label,
click here
.
There are reproduction labels around in new condition, so if the bottle looks old and the
label looks new, then chances are that the label was added later.
To see an original and repro label side by side,
click here
.
In this photo, the repro label is on the left and the original label
is on the right.
According to the Petretti book on Coke bottles,
the repro labels have even/straight/uniform lines while the
originals had uneven/dotted lines.

Hobbleskirt Coke

By 1917 Cokes started being produced in the familiar hobble-skirt shape
which is still used today.
The first hobbleskirts where patened Nov 16, 1915 and came in a variety of colors:
clear, aqua, ice blue, and green.
To see a rare 1915 that is blue on top and green on the bottom,
click here
.

The first five versions of these hobble-skirt
Cokes are identified by their embossing:

"NOV.16 1915" were produced from 1917 to 1928.

"DEC. 25 1923" (called the "Christmas Cokes")
were produced from 1928 to 1938. Must be careful since reproductions
of the 1923 Cokes were produced in 1989. Easiest way to spot a repro is
by looking at the base of the bottle.
See
photo of 5 Christmas Cokes,
one of which is repro - can you spot the repro?
It's the one in middle of the bottom row. The City/State letters are smaller
on the repro. Repro also has a circular line joining the State and City names.

"PAT. D 105529" (called the "D-Patent Cokes") were
produced from 1938 to 1951.

Later hobble-skirt bottles (i.e. Dec 25 1923 patent and later)
all have a green tint color.
One exception are those produced during 1942-45; these were blue due to the
copper shortage for WWII (copper gives the green color).

Fake Colors

There are also some
amber colored hobble-skirt bottles.
around, but the amber color in these
bottles is artificially produced by irradiating the bottle.
There are also fake amber S-S Coke bottles: see
if you can spot the artifical amber bottle
in this photo, courtesy of Tim McGuire.
The photo shows the various shades of amber that occur naturally,
with the repro in the middle: a Macon GA S-S. There are
no natural amber S-S bottles from Macon GA.

Be careful of Coke bottles with a
deep purple color.
Here are purple examples of a
S-S and
1915 Hobbleskirt.
Dark purple is not a natural color for these bottles and is caused by
irradiating clear bottles.
The older Coke bottles had manganese that will turn the bottle
dark purple when irradiated.
However, these purple bottles do make a nice color addition to your collection.
There are some naturally occuring bottles with a light amethyst/purple tint - leaving
them out in prolonged sunlight will darken the tint (but they will never become a
dark purple).
Buyer beware!

Other Coke Stuff

Check out these
1915 ads
that shows a labeled straight-sided Coke bottle
and the circular arrow symbol that appeared on some of the Tenn amber Cokes.
One ad shows the baseball played Eddie Collins.

Books on Coke

Bill Porter
writes/sells the "Coke Bottle Checklist" which
covers the history, rarity, and pricing (general) of embossed, crown-top
Coke bottles with script trademarks (i.e. Coca-Cola in italics).
Reggie sometimes has extra copies for sale at $30 each plus $2 postage
but have
been sold out lately;
Email to check availability.